7/21 suspect Didn't Mean to "Harm People Nearby"

According to new reports, Osman Hussain, the suspect arrested in Italy following the botched London 7/21 bombings claims that they didn't intend to hurt anybody. Hussain doesn't consider himself a terrorist, and is fighting extradition to the UK.

Yeah, that's the ticket.

From the Associated Press:

ROME (AP) - A suspect in the failed London transit bombings admitted Saturday to a role in the attack but said it was only intended to be an attention-grabbing strike, not a deadly one, a legal expert familiar with the investigation said.

Osman Hussain told interrogators he wasn't carrying enough explosives even to "harm people nearby," the expert told The Associated Press. The expert spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the ongoing investigation, which under Italian law must remain secret.

Also worthy of note is that Hussain's court-appointed attorney is a woman, Antonietta Sonnessa. Very subtle of the Italians to have Hussain represented by a female infidel, especially one who favors casual and rather scanty Western dress.

Via Dr. Rusty Shackelford of The Jawa Report who was tipped to the story by reader Kim.

Cross-posted at The Jawa Report.

"Over There" - Overblown

Well, that was disappointing. Not that Bochco's new show about the Iraq War offended me as an American - I didn't get the impression that a leftist, anti-war agenda was being pushed. No, Over There offended me as a writer.

And the show's writers started sucking right off the bat. From the Viet Vet cliché trooper lighting up a joint while on duty through the long, long tirade the held-past-his-tour-and-pissed-as-Hell sergeant inflicts on his squad, to the unimaginative use of cable-permitted expletives, Bochco's writing staff was underwhelming.

Do senior officers undermine their lieutenants' authority (and the chain of command) by agreeing with a sergeant who has just insulted the lieutenant's leadership abilities - in front of the men? I hope not.

Do sergeants address senior officers with contempt while using "goddamn" as a frequent modifier? Maybe once.

Then there's the issue of the two women convoy drivers trapped in combat. Grossly incompetent, virtually worse than useless (and there's a separate issue that I'm sure some female soldiers and bloggers will address), these two are assigned to hold the squad's right flank. Makes sense to the Over There writers.

As the sergeant leads a frontal assault against insurgents, holed up in a mosque and accompanied by an al-Jazeera reporter and cameraman, he shouts, "We didn't come here to take your oil! We came here to kick your ass!" Didn't John Wayne say something similar in The Fighting Seabees or The Green Berets? Personally, I'd think that someone leading a frontal assault on enemies with automatic weapons would save his breath for running and shooting, but that's just me.

The one bright spot was the portrayal of the al-Jazeera reporter as an enemy and as an assclown. That had the ring of truth.

I used to watch Hill Street Blues every week. I most definitely won't be rearranging my schedule to catch Over There.

Over There

I've heard differing reviews of the new Steven Bochco show about the Iraq War Over There. The pilot is on FX tonight at 10 Eastern. I'll have to watch and see if Bochco plays it fair or repeats the slanders perpetrated against Vietnam Vets by the Hollywood elite.

Has Sassygate Claimed Guardian Executive Editor Scardino?

Rumor has it that Guardian Executive Editor Albert Scardino was sacked for his role in the Dilpazier Aslam imbroglio, but the Guardian is officially denying any connection. Aslam was a "trainee journalist" who wrote an incredibly inflammatory opinion piece soon after the London terror attacks. Aslam was later revealed to be a member of an Islamist extremist group. Sardino has been named by some blogs as the man responsible for hiring Aslam.

From the Timesonline:

Albert Scardino has stepped down from the post of executive editor of the Guardian newspaper, just a week after the controversial dismissal of trainee journalist Dilpazier Aslam over his undeclared Islamist interests.

Rumours had circulated last night that Mr Scardino was about to leave, but sources at the newspaper today were at pains to point out that the departure was entirely unconnected with the Aslam affair.

The Dread Pundit Bluto would like to take this opportunity to thank the Guardian for naming this site the "most extreme blog".

Was the Space Shuttle Columbia Downed by Greens?

I don't usually listen to Rush Limbaugh. Nothing against Rush, but the local station runs his show from 1 to 3 in the afternoon, and I'm usually doing other things. But today I happened to be driving down to Target to get some new golf spikes, the better to tread on the faces of the proletariat like a good capitalist pig.

Roger Hedgecock was filling in for Rush and he said something so outrageous that I thought he must be joking. Hedgecock claimed that the problems with the insulating foam on the Space Shuttles only cropped up after Freon was replaced with other materials due to environmental concerns. It doesn't get much press, but apparently Hedgecock was right.

From Richard Bennett's Mossback Culture (February 2, 2003):

So concerns about the effects of freon on the ozone layer lead directly to the crash of the Shuttle, apparently. You'd think NASA would be able to get some kind of a waiver on this stuff.

Bennett quotes from a Mercury News article:

As recently as last September, a retired engineering manager for Lockheed Martin, the contractor that assembles the tanks, told a conference in New Orleans that developing a new foam to meet environmental standards had "been much more difficult than anticipated."
The retired Lockheed engineer, who helped design the thermal protection system, said the switch from a foam based on Freon - also known as CFC-11 - has "resulted in unanticipated program impacts, such as foam loss during flight."

Unfortunately, the article is no longer available online. Of course, you only find this out after filling out the nosy registration form and being solicited for a couple hundred spammers - thanks, Mercury.

NASA officially blames foam loss during flight on hand spraying techniques that leave voids in the foam in this document, but this News Max story lays the blame squarely on the Freon substitute:

As recently as last month, NASA had been warned that foam insulation on the space shuttle's external fuel tank could sheer off as it did in the 2003 Columbia disaster - a problem that has plagued space shuttle flights since NASA switched to a non-Freon-based type of foam insulation to comply with Clinton administration Environmental Protection Agency regulations.

The thought that the Columbia astronauts died in the name of political correctness is awful. Surely the amount of Freon used in the Space Shuttle program couldn't have had any measurable effect on the environment.

Trouble Brewing

From Mehr News (Iran)

Iran announces readiness to resume nuclear activities: source
TEHRAN, July 27 (MNA) -- In a formal letter to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, Iran has announced that it is prepared to resume nuclear activities at some nuclear centers in the next few days, a European diplomat said in Vienna on Wednesday.

From the Associated Press

AP: Iran achieves solid fuel technology
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran said for the first time Wednesday it has fully developed solid-fuel technology in producing missiles, a major breakthrough that increases the accuracy of missiles hitting targets.

The Shahab-3, with a range of 810 miles to more than 1,200 miles, is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and reaching Israel and U.S. forces in the Middle East.

We may be witnessing the last days of Iran as a habitable region. A nuclear strike on US troops would likely startle even Al Franken into discovering his dormant sense of patriotism (remember the "red hot poker"?). There's little doubt that the backward mullahs running Iran would be insane enough to attack our troops. It's hard to imagine that President Bush could long resist the intense political pressure following such a strike to reduce Iran to a radioactive wasteland.

Blogger Apparently Fired for Supporting Second Amendment

Joe Huffman, who writes the blog The View From North Central Idaho, may have been fired because his employer, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a government contractor, didn't like his views on the Second Amendment Right to Keep and Bear Arms. According to Huffman, he was terminated without cause and without any opportunity to defend himself. Huffman's full account of the incident can be read here:

With a two inch high stack of printouts from Huffman's websites in front of him, Sutherland and McMillan explained they had a problem with some of his postings, claiming that Huffman had released business and customer sensitive information on his blog. Huffman, who has a high level security clearance, had made indistinct statements about work on his blog. There was no classified information on any of his websites.

When Huffman asked for specific details about what was wrong, they refused specifics. He repeatedly ask for a copy of the printouts, but was only allowed to see the top page.

Huffman was able to identify the web pages scrutinized using his weblog. If the results of his investigation are true, it seems that Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has left itself wide open for a wrongful termination suit.

Via The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler.

Guardian Fires Aslam, May Have Libeled Poor Dread Pundit Bluto

In an unattributed story on Friday, UK shrieking leftist paper The Guardian announced the firing of "journalist trainee" Dilpazier Aslam, and may have libeled this blog in the process:

Rightwing bloggers from the US, where the Guardian has a large online following, were behind the targeting last week of a trainee Guardian journalist who wrote a comment piece which they did not care for about the London bombings.
The story is a demonstration of the way the 'blogosphere' can be used to mount obsessively personalised attacks at high speed.

The Guardian then goes on to say that:

Perhaps the most extreme blog was posted by "dreadpundit", a right-wing New Yorker using the name "Bluto". He wrote: "Okay, Dilpazier, I've decided to bow to your 'logic' - sauce for the goose and all that. That's why I'm issuing a secular fatwah and asking for some loyal Briton to saw off your head and ship it to me (use Fed-Ex, please, so I can get a morning delivery, and do remember the dry ice, also, a videotape of the "execution")."

Whether the failure to print this disclaimer...

Disclaimer: I am not really interested in receiving the head of Dilpazier Aslam, nor do I advocate any act of violence against him. The spurious request is made to demonstrate via reductio ad absurdum that Aslam's logic is invalid, and, indeed, sophomoric in the extreme. This disclaimer is made because there is such an enormous number of imbeciles who advocate Leftist ideologies and who cannot be depended upon to recognize satirical comments. Forceps babies, each and every one of them.

...included in the post was deliberate or not is hard to say. It may just be the cursory way that many in the mainstream media typically scan blog entries. However, Scott Burgess of The Daily Ablution can't use that excuse for amplifying The Guardian's defamation on his own pompous and pretentious blog. Burgess's lack of proper rigor in researching his entry makes him an easy target for criticism, and rightly so.

Priggish and misinformed though young Mr. Burgess may be, I learned of the story through his blog: The Daily Ablution, when a reader alerted me via email.

Ilario Pantano Should Sue This "Writer"

Ashraf Fahim is a self-described "freelance writer" and "news analyst" operating out of Brooklyn, New York and publishing primarily in Middle eastern and Asian "news" outlets unfriendly to the US.

Fahim is so long-winded and boring that I'm not going to reproduce the entire propaganda piece here; I'll just fisk a few choice paragraphs. The density of Fahim's drivel is by design - repeating lies over and over breaks down resistance and inures the reader to the obvious distortions and pretzel logic.

From The perils of colonial justice in Iraq:

Among its more vociferous opponents, the American project in Iraq is characterized as a classic colonial adventure, indistinguishable in nature or intent from the deepest, darkest chapters in Northern oppression of the South: America is to Iraq as Britain was to India or Belgium to the Congo. Proponents, on the other hand, argue the inherent benevolence of American empire - the export of democracy and egalitarianism in contrast to the transparent racist imperialism of yore.

Make no mistake. Ashraf Fahim is among those vociferous critics, not an unbiased bystander as he pretends to be here. If you enjoy anti-American propaganda, check out his other writings here. But a close reading of Fahim's first paragraph is enough to pin down his mindset. Notice that Fahim's imaginary protagonists, the "vociferous opponent" and the "proponent" agree to the "colonial" nature of the War in Iraq. This is the straw man that Fahim is trying to create. But if the US is a "colonial" power, the same as Great Britain and Belgium were, where are the US colonies? Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands? Fahim's thesis is doomed by definition, and his own faulty logic.

One possible way to arbitrate this dispute is by observing the dispensation of justice with regard to American servicemen accused of the "unlawful killing" (in military parlance) of Iraqi civilians. In this area, as with the infamous cases of torture in Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, impunity is the rule of thumb for both the rank and file and their superiors. In the overwhelming majority of cases over the course of the war, prosecutions have either not taken place, or if court martials have occurred, there have been acquittals or token sentences dispensed.

Tell that to Lyndie England and Charles Graner. Fahim is flirting with outright lies here, anathema to modern propaganda, but he's on shaky ground and has to overplay his hand. I'll also helpfully point out to Fahim and his editors that it's "courts martial", not "court martials".

Next, Fahim uses several paragraphs of supposition and innuendo about Iraqi civilian deaths to lead up to the Ilario Pantano case.

The case of Ilario Pantano is typical of the way the scales of justice tip in occupied Iraq. Pantano was a Marine lieutenant accused of killing two Iraqi captives, Hamadaay Kareem and Taha Ahmed Hanjil, in April 2004, after the platoon he commanded captured them as they drove away from a house the Marines had just raided as a suspected insurgent hideout. The two officers with Pantano at the time allege that he ordered the captives' handcuffs removed, had them assume defensive positions, instructed his soldiers to look away, then shot Kareem and Hanjil in the back. Pantano emptied two magazines into them.

This account is completely at odds with the testimony of Pantano and his men, and the findings of Pantano's Court Martial. In fact, it's very possible that Pantano could successfully sue Fahim for libel here, despite the tough standards imposed by US libel law.

One of the officers present, Sergeant Daniel Coburn, stated that Pantano had become agitated when weapons were discovered in the suspected hideout and apparently wanted to "teach [the insurgents] a lesson". Pantano's defense, which has been successful in similar cases (such as the execution of a wounded insurgent in a Fallujah mosque famously captured by an NBC television reporter) was that the unarmed Iraqis moved suddenly, leading him to fear they were about to carry out an attack. Pantano faced the death penalty on charges of premeditated murder, but was cleared in a pretrial hearing in late May, and resigned from the military.

Well, first off Coburn is not an "officer" as that term is commonly used. Second, Fahim fails to mention that Coburn had a running feud with Pantano and had been effectively demoted to radio operator - a clear sign that Pantano did not think him capable of performing the duties of a sergeant, and possible motive for Coburn to want to see Pantano in trouble. Last, and most telling, Coburn's version of events was rejected by the Court Martial. Fahim can have no purpose in repeating rejected testimony other than to defame Ilario Pantano, and through him, the US military in general.

The Truth Hurts

What comes up at number two when you Google the word "ass"? Take a look (click on image for larger view).

Thanks to a commenter at The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler.

London Times: No Bomb on Man Shot

The Timesonline, without citing a source, reports that the man shot dead as he fled police and jumped onto a tube carriage was not carrying explosives:

It is understood that he was found not to have been carrying a bomb.

Three officers had followed him to Stockwell station after he emerged from a nearby house that police believed to be connected with Thursday’s attempted bombings.

The suspect, described as being of Asian appearance and wearing a thick, bulky jacket, vaulted over a ticket barrier when challenged by police and ran down the escalator and along the platform of the Northern Line.

Another witness has described what appears to be an attempted hostage-taking by the man:

Dan Copeland, a Northern Line passenger, told BBC News: “The man burst in through the carriage door to my right and grabbed hold of the pole and a person by the glass partition near the door, diagonally opposite me.

Information from police sources indicates that the man was a confederate of the London bombers.

Police are describing him as an “intimate accomplice of the cell”. His name and address were thought to have been found among the possessions left by the would-be bombers on Thursday.

Police sources said he did not live at the address from which he had been followed.

Update: The BBC reports the man was not connected to Terror bombers:

A man shot dead by police hunting the bombers behind Thursday's London attacks was unconnected to the incidents, police have confirmed.

A Scotland Yard statement said the shooting was a "tragedy" which was regretted by the Metropolitan Police.

More Than 80 Killed By Car Bombs in Egypt

A series of explosions ripped through the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Saturday. Al-Qaeda is admitting guilt for the attacks that have left more than 80 dead. From the Associated Press:

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt - A rapid series of car bombs and another blast ripped through a luxury hotel and a coffeeshop in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik early Saturday, killing at least 83. Egypt's president vowed to hunt down the culprits as rescue workers said the death toll could still rise.

A total of 83 people were confirmed dead, said Dr. Saeed Abdel Fattah, manager of the Sharm el-Sheik International Hospital where the victims were taken. Among the dead were two Britons, two Germans and an Italian, he added, and Czech officials said one Czech tourist was also killed. Rescue workers were still searching for victims at some attack scenes.

Several hours after the attacks, a group claiming ties to al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the explosion on an Islamic web site. The group, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, al-Qaida, in Syria and Egypt, was one of two extremist groups that also claimed responsibility for October bombings at the Egyptian resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan that killed 34. The group also claimed responsibility for a Cairo bombing in late April.

Via The Jawa Report.

And How Does Al-Jazeera Report the Tube Shooting?

Most people read only a couple of paragraphs deep into news stories; some only read the lead before moving on. That's why journalists tend to pack so much information into the first paragraph of a breaking story. For example, this is the lead for the tube shooting story at MSNBC: "Hours after chasing down and shooting to death one man on the subway..."

So how does al-Jazeera serve their mostly Arab audience? Like this [emphasis added]:

Police have confirmed that they shot dead a man in an underground train station in south London.

The man was shot apparently while trying to board a train on Friday morning at Stockwell station in south London.

Just a peaceful man trying to take the tube into work when the British Gestapo murdered him for no reason. In the sixth(!) paragraph it's mentioned that he "ran" onto the train.

This isn't just a matter of style, this is how propaganda is done.

Brits Kill Suicide Bomber Suspect

From MSNBC:

LONDON - Police shot and killed a man wearing a thick coat at a London subway station Friday, a day after the city was hit by its second wave of terrorist attacks in two weeks.

Passengers said the man, described as South Asian, raised suspicion wearing a winter coat in the heat of summer. Most said he wore a backpack, according to Reuters, reminding many of images of the four suicide bombers behind both the July 7 and Thursday's attacks.

Witnesses said he ran onto a train at Stockwell station, police chased him, he tripped, and police then shot him.

"They pushed him onto the floor and unloaded five shots into him. He's dead," witness Mark Whitby told the British Broadcasting Corp. "He looked like a cornered fox. He looked petrified."

If this man was not a suicide bomber, then this was probably a case of the universe punishing stupidity.

Update: "Known Suspect" Was Under Surveillance

From the BBC:

BBC Home affairs correspondent Margaret Gilmore said officers had challenged a known suspect they had been following.

"He ran, they followed him. They say they gave him a warning, they then shot him.

"They brought in the air ambulance. They did everything they can to revive him. He died at the scene."

Police had warned they would shoot to kill if they believed somebody to be a threat, she added.

Rice Aides, NBC's Andrea Mitchell, Roughed Up By Sudanese

I know this sounds like a skit from Saturday Night Live, but apparently, it's true. From the Associated Press:

NEW YORK -- Andrea Mitchell said she felt angry and humiliated after Sudanese bodyguards dragged her out of a room Thursday for questioning President Omar el-Bashir about his involvement in the country's violence.

Large, gun-toting guards painfully wrenched the 5-foot-3 Mitchell's arm behind her. She was freed after U.S. officials accompanying Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice complained.

"Can you tell us why the violence is continuing?" Mitchell asked, as a Sudanese official said "no, no, no, please."

"Can you tell us why the government is supporting the militias?" she asked.

After getting no reply from el-Bashir, she asked, "Why should Americans believe your promises?"

It was then that she was forcibly removed.

But don't worry. Later, Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail phoned Condoleeza Rice to apologize.

London Attacked Again

Reports indicate that Londoners are calmly going about their business. The bombs, weaker than those used in the 7/7 attacks, mirrored the targets of the earlier terrorist acts and injured one person. At least one person has been arrested.

From the Timesonline

Bombers set off four near-simultaneous explosions on the Underground and a London bus today, as the capital came under renewed terrorist attack two weeks after the al-Qaeda suicide bombings of July 7.

Police said only one person was wounded in bomb blasts or attempted blasts at Warren Street, Oval and Shepherd's Bush Tube stations, and on a bus passing through Hackney, which had its windows blasted out.

Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said the explosions were "pretty close to simultaneous", although not all the devices had gone off properly. He said the devices used were smaller than the July 7 attacks - in which suicide bombers killed more than 50 people -and there was no sign of any chemical or biological attack.

"The situation is now coming fully under control," said Sir Ian, who added that police may have captured valuable forensic material from the failed devices.

These are, after all, the same folks who shoved Hitler's Blitz right back up the Fuehrer's pooper.

What Forces Abdullah to Murder People?

From the Associated Press

British Islamic leaders Wednesday called for a judicial inquiry into what motivated the bombers.

"The scale of disenchantment amongst Muslim youth is very clear to see," said Inayat Bungalwala of the Muslim Council of Britain.

"Various factors are at play: underachievement in education; a high rate of unemployment; discrimination in the workplace; social exclusion, and also the government's own policies, especially in Iraq. The process of how we get four homegrown suicide bombers must be understood and that is why we are calling for an inquiry."

That's a good question Mr. Bungalwala. Almost all of the factors you mentioned have been cited as problems for several American minorities, most notably blacks and hispanics. Oddly, however, we Yanks haven't developed any black or hispanic "homegrown" suicide bombers.

Hmmm...what could account for this discrepancy? Could it be...oh, I don't know....ISLAM?

Seriously, Mr. Bungalwala, if you want to be seen as contributing to the solution, rather than exacerbating the problem, you need to encourage your fellow Muslims to actively expose the monsters hiding within your community.

Taking Out the Eurotrash

I received an email today from a British college professor about this post criticizing Soumayya Ghannoushi's recent propaganda effort for al-Jazeera. I promised the prof that I wouldn't print his real name. I'll refer to him using the pseudonym "Josef Goebbels" to preserve the ethnic heritage (and its irony) of his real name.

I read your response to Soumayya Ghannoushi's article.
I am not a Muslim and I am teaching at a college in
London, after 9/11 no one im my class had any
associations between terrorism and the muslim world,...

Are you kidding me, Josef? Al Qaeda announced their guilt. Were your students so dimwitted that they didn't realize that al Qaeda is a Muslim organization that bases its actions on their own interpretation of the Quran? Or did they subscribe to that ludicrous French conspiracy theory that claimed the Pentagon wasn't struck by a plane?

...everybody thought that the US has to blame itself and
is probably the greatest export of violence, it's
military, film, etc. since then the US has lost in
most peoples mind's the status as a civilised nation.

Obviously, based upon the scatter-brained language used in your post, you teach neither English, History, nor Philosophy, Professor Goebbels.

Here's what the woman you are supposedly defending said on the same subject: "Through their senseless crimes, Islam, in the minds of most, has become a euphemism for mass slaughter and destruction." I guess you just didn't think that sentence fragment through very carefully, did you?

US and Israel are connected 'scum' states.

As a dog returneth to his vomit, so this ethnic German college professor returneth to his anti-Semitism.

Now we are
to believe that the export of violence is a muslim
issue,...

Yes. Yes, you are. And you can go back to the 1972 Munich Olympics (probably about ten years before you were born, from the reasoning ability demonstrated so far) for the first act of modern terrorism. Quick quiz: who perpetrated the murder of the Jewish athletes?

...you are a good one to talk after all being a US citizen...

Yes, Josef, the US Constitution gives me that right. You, however, are a good one to talk about Israel being a "scum nation", you being descended from Nazis, and all.

...the only response you have is a violent one,...

What is "violent" about an article posted on a blog? Or are you referring to the American response to 9/11? The measured response that uprooted al Qaeda's base of operations and, just by the way, overthrew a violent and repressive Muslim government?

...if the muslim world was peaceful the US still would be
an aggessive nation, but if the US was a peaceful
state that would make a huge difference.

I just can't stand your mangled English any more and, as an aside, I will point out to you that hypotheticals call for the subjunctive case. Thus, the correct phrasing of your...thought...for lack of a better word is: "if the muslim world were peaceful". Of course, I'd also like to helpfully point out that you have just demolished your own thesis by admitting that the Muslim world isn't peaceful. I'll also point out that if the US were an "aggressive nation", a lot of things would be different. For instance, your Fuhrer would have been cut off at the pass early on. Neville Chamberlain, Shmeville Chamberlain, Berlin would have been bombed in the thirties. And nobody would have told General Patton, "Sorry George, the Soviets are our allies. You can't roll on to Moscow."

As a US
citizen you should make yourself strong for peace,

No worries, there mate, that's being done. Peace through strength is one lesson that a majority of Yanks have learned. Perhaps if you, and others of your detestable ilk, continue to inflame Muslim passions and excuse cowardly baby-hunters, thereby contributing to more terrorist incidents, Mecca will experience the perfect peace of Carthage. Go ahead and look that one up, pinhead. I'll wait.

Egypt: el-Nashar an Innocent Lamb Wrongfully Accused

Magdy el-Nashar, the Leeds scholar who was arrested in Egypt following the London terror bombings, has been absolved of any wrongdoing by the Egyptian government. From The Guardian:

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Egypt said Tuesday that a detained chemist wanted by Britain for questioning about the London bombings had no links to the July 7 attacks or to al-Qaida.

Government spokesman Magdy Rady said in a statement that a Cabinet meeting Tuesday reviewed an Interior Ministry report that "made clear that there is no link between Egyptian chemist Magdy el-Nashar with al-Qaida or the (London) bombings."

So there.

Of course Egyptian officials offered no explanation for this inconvenient report:

(CNN) -- The explosive TATP was found in connection with the investigation of the London bombings, three knowledgeable sources have told CNN.

One of the sources said that investigators found the TATP in the Leeds apartment rented by Magdy el-Nashar, an Egyptian biochemist detained for questioning Thursday in connection with the London attacks.

I'm sure there's a logical explanation for these seemingly contradictory reports. After all, it's not as if the Egyptians have a history of lying about terrorist incidents or anything.

Guest Posting

Dr. Rusty Shackelford* of the über-blog The Jawa Report has accepted me as a guest poster while he lolls around on vacation in California. Many posts at The Dread Pundit Bluto will thus also appear at The Jawa Report.

*A pseudonym. Dr. Rusty works in academia and would be shunned by colleagues if it were to be discovered that he maintains a conservative blog.

Carnival of Liberty III

Eric of Eric's Grumbles Before the Grave is running his Carnival of Liberty III.

The Carnival of Liberty's goal is to promote blogging and thinking about liberty and freedom. How to advance the cause, where there are problems, what we can do, who's saying what, historical trends and ideas, liberty in the news, and more.

Be sure to stop by and check it out.

Report: British Allowed Terrorists to Operate Freely Within UK

A new report from Chatham House (The Royal Institute of International Affairs) bluntly accuses British intelligence and counter-terrorist organizations of knowingly allowing Middle Eastern terrorist groups to operate freely within the United Kingdom. It directly contradicts statements made earlier by Lord Chancellor Charles Falconer and characterizes the UK as a base for international terrorism:

By the mid-1990s the UK's intelligence agencies and the police were well aware that London was increasingly being used as a base by individuals involved in promoting, funding and planning terrorism in the Middle East and elsewhere. However, these individuals were not viewed as a threat to the UK's national security, and so they were left to continue their activities with relative impunity, a policy which caused much anger among the foreign governments concerned. As a result of giving lower priority to international terrorism, the British authorities did not fully appreciate the threat from Al-Qaeda. The failure to gain any warning from existing information of the 9/11 attacks on the United States was an intelligence failure of the entire Western alliance, not only of the US intelligence community.

In other words, the report implies that the British were derelict in their duty by allowing radical Islamists within the UK to incite and organize violence against the West.

While mainstream media reports are focusing on this fairly obvious conclusion...

The UK is at particular risk because it is the closest ally of the United States, has deployed armed forces in the military campaigns to topple the Taleban regime in Afghanistan and in Iraq, and has taken a leading role in international intelligence, police and judicial cooperation against Al-Qaeda and in efforts to suppress its finances.

...they have failed to report on the more startling revelation that terrorists were allowed to organize, recruit, and operate freely within the UK.

Senior British Official: Britain Not Lax Toward Muslim Extremists

From The Gulf Daily News (Bahrain):

LONDON: Britain did not have a permissive attitude toward extremist Muslim refugees before the London bombings, a senior government minister said, dismissing criticism that lax policies have made Britain a fertile recruiting ground for Islamic extremists.

The Secretary for Constitutional Affairs and Lord Chancellor Charles Falconer rejected a suggestion that the government had previously been lax in its policies toward political refugees from Muslim countries and helped make Britain a fertile recruiting ground for Islamic terrorism.

"In terms of asylum, our policy is: If you are in fear of persecution, you are entitled to come here," he said.

"Obviously, if you then seek to attack the very state that you come to, that gives rise to different questions.

"But I don't think we have been ultra-liberal. ... What we have got to do now is unify all the forces in our society, in particular in the Muslim community, against those people who are fundamentally at odds with our values."

The Lord Chancellor also noted that, contrary to popular belief, Neville Chamberlain was "quite stern" with Adolph Hitler, Yank performer Madonna is "shy and naturally chaste", and then the Lord Chancellor offered to sell London Bridge to reporters "for a pittance".

American Blogger Subject of Death Threats From Islamist Groups

Blogger Chris Byrne of The Anarchangel reports that he has been contacted by the FBI who told him that European Islamist groups are threatening his life. The fatwah was allegedly issued because of this post, which contains links to videos of Byrne and some of his friends shooting and urinating on Qurans.

Via Riding Sun.

More at The Jawa Report.

What The Civilized World Is Facing

From an American Forces Press Service release by Major Russell Goemaere:

BAGHDAD, July 17, 2005 - In what military officials are calling "a new level of barbarity," terrorists tortured and killed two innocent Iraqi civilians and laid their bodies in the road as bait for curious Iraqi civilians and investigating Iraqi security forces before detonating a car bomb at 8 a.m. this morning.

The attack, in the New Baghdad district of the capital, killed one Iraqi police officer, along with the terrorist who drove the vehicle. Five civilians and three other Iraqi police officers were wounded.

The bodies were discovered lying in the middle of the road. When Iraqi security forces and a crowd of civilians gathered near the scene, a terrorist drove his car bomb into the group and detonated it.

I can hardly wait for the first terrorist apologist in the media to defend this act.

Bring Me the Head of Dilpazier Aslam

The Guardian, perhaps the UK's worst example of mindless, irresponsible, Leftist "thought", has now decided to provoke anti-Muslim violence. Not tacitly, of course, and probably not intentionally (though a few spicy hooligan-on-Mohammedan beatings might be just the thing to boost circulation), but by printing a justification for the London terror bombings penned by a sociopathic Islamist radical. The Guardian has even hired this viper as a "journalism trainee".

We Rock the Boat by Dilpazier Aslam blames the British for the London bombings. The British shouldn't have been "shocked" that they occurred. Young Muslims are "sassy" now and not afraid to excuse the actions of the subhuman vermin who perpetrated the terror attacks.

Shocked would be to suggest we didn't appreciate that when Falluja was flattened, the people under it were dead but not forgotten - long after we had moved on to reading more interesting headlines about the Olympics.

Yes, Britons, it's your fault that those Londoners died because you supported the Americans in cleaning out a nest of terrorist snakes whose compatriots are now busying themselves looking for children to immolate.

Second- and third-generation Muslims are without the don't-rock-the-boat attitude that restricted our forefathers. We're much sassier with our opinions, not caring if the boat rocks or not.

Translation: "We applaud terrorists."

Earlier this year I attended a mosque in Leeds for Friday prayers. It was in the month of Ramadan, when Islamic fervour is at its most impassioned, yet in the sermon, to a crowd of hundreds - many of whom were from Iraq - Falluja was not referred to once; not even in the cupped-hands prayers after the sermon was over.

Take the hint, you bloodthirsty, fringe-dwelling mentally ill asshat. That's an indication that the average, sane Muslim doesn't want anything to do with your extremist ideology.

The don't-rock-the-boat attitude of elders doesn't mean the agitation wanes; it means it builds till it can be contained no more.

Okay, Dilpazier, I've decided to bow to your "logic" - sauce for the goose and all that. That's why I'm issuing a secular fatwah and asking for some loyal Briton to saw off your head and ship it to me (use Fed-Ex, please, so I can get a morning delivery, and do remember the dry ice, also, a videotape of the "execution").

You see Dillweed, my agitation has been building for some time, long before 9/11 as a matter of fact. It was crystal clear to me some time soon after the attack on the USS Cole that you and your ilk (and by "ilk" I mean terrorists) are despicable snakes who cannot be reasoned with, and thus must be put down for the common good.

Certainly you can have no complaint if acts similar to the ones you seek to excuse and justify are perpetrated against yourself. It's just that I'm so "sassy" and "agitated", and, as you say, that excuses any action, no matter how barbaric. I considered having your head preserved and mounted for display by a taxidermist but will probably simply feed it to hogs.

Disclaimer: I am not really interested in receiving the head of Dilpazier Aslam, nor do I advocate any act of violence against him. The spurious request is made to demonstrate via reductio ad absurdum that Aslam's logic is invalid, and, indeed, sophomoric in the extreme. This disclaimer is made because there is such an enormous number of imbeciles who advocate Leftist ideologies and who cannot be depended upon to recognize satirical comments. Forceps babies, each and every one of them.

Via Ace of Spades, by way of The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler.

The Dallas Morning News Takes a Stand

At last, a card-carrying member of the Mainstream Media has had enough of the inane euphemisms being used by the press reporting on Iraq:

Two words not uncommon to editorial pages are "resolve" and "sacrifice," especially as they relate to war.

Today, this editorial board resolves to sacrifice another word – "insurgent" – on the altar of precise language. No longer will we refer to suicide bombers or anyone else in Iraq who targets and kills children and other innocent civilians as "insurgents."

The notion that these murderers in any way are nobly rising up against a sitting government in a principled fight for freedom has become, on its face, absurd. If they ever held a moral high ground, they sacrificed it weeks ago, when they turned their focus from U.S. troops to Iraqi men, women and now children going about their daily lives.

They drove that point home with chilling clarity Wednesday in a poor Shiite neighborhood. As children crowded around U.S. soldiers handing out candy and toys in a gesture of good will, a bomb-laden SUV rolled up and exploded.

These children were not collateral damage. They were targets.

The SUV driver was no insurgent. He was a terrorist.

And if that wasn't clear enough, the editorial concludes with:

Words have meanings. Whether too timid, sensitive or "open-minded," we've resisted drawing a direct line between homicidal bombers everywhere else in the world and the ones who blow up Iraqi civilians or behead aid workers.

No more. To call them "insurgents" insults every legitimate insurgency in modern history. They are terrorists.

Kudos to the editorial board of the Dallas Morning News. Let this be a wakeup call and a challenge for mainstream reporters and editors everywhere.


Via The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler.

11 Soldiers Charged With Abuse in Iraq

In a clear sign that some brasshats have too much time on their hands to second-guess soldiers, eleven US soldiers have been charged with abusing suspected insurgents. From Reuters [emphasis added]:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United States military has charged 11 soldiers with assaulting prisoners, the army said on Saturday.

"The charges are related to a report by a Task Force Baghdad Soldier that other Soldiers had allegedly assaulted some suspected terrorists," the 3rd Infantry Division, which patrols Baghdad, said in a statement.

The army's criminal investigation division had presented the charges, which could lead to a court martial if approved by commanders.

The statement gave few details about the alleged abuse, but said none of the detainees had required medical treatment for injuries. It did not say how many detainees were involved, but said all but one were subsequently freed.

The unit involved has been suspended from its active duties for retraining pending the investigation, it said.

This smacks of the same kind of chickenshit overreaction by the Army that Marine Ilario Pantano was subjected to by REMFs at Eighth and Eye.

Thanks to partisan jackasses like Dick Durbin some of the brass have our soldiers walking on eggs while trying to fight a war.

A Jihad By Any Other Name Would Still Smell Like Ass

Lawyers for accused Islamic Jihad backer Sami al-Arian today raised questions about the accuracy of FBI translations of taped phone conversations. At one point they argued that "jihad" can mean "striving for a goal" - it's all in the context.

So, when al-Arian was taped saying, "Thus is the way of jihad. Thus is the way of martyrdom. Thus is the way of blood, because this is the path to heaven," he was simply talking about striving to reach a goal.

Of course. It's all clear now. The cowardly terrorists of Islamic Jihad aren't really evil babyhunters; they're simply "striving for a goal". And if al-Arian is convicted, when the judge says "life in prison" he really means "dude, you're set for life".

More at TBO.com News.

London Bombing Suspect Arrested

One of the London bombing suspects, who had studied at North Carolina State University, has been arrested. From the Associated Press:

LONDON - Police in Egypt have arrested an Egyptian biochemist sought in the probe of the London bombings, an official said Friday. Meanwhile, authorities investigated a possible link between al-Qaida and the suicide team that carried out attacks.

Magdy el-Nashar, 33, was taken into custody upon his arrival in Cairo from abroad, an Egyptian official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because an official announcement of the information had not yet been made. El-Nashar, who studied at North Carolina State University and taught at Leeds University in Britain, was being interrogated by Egyptian authorities, the official said.

The official could not specify the date of the arrest or where el-Nashar was arriving from, but said it could be as long as a week ago.

Metropolitan Police in London said a man has been arrested in Cairo, but they would not confirm his name or characterize him as a suspect.

Update: Was British Grant Money Used to Finance the London Terror Attacks?

Magdy el-Nashar is listed as a Fellow of the Bioscience Yorkshire Enterprise Fellowship:

Magdy Elnashar, University of Leeds

At the University of Leeds Magdy is researching a carrageenan gel matrix scaffold to immobilize enzymes and provide an alternative to chemicals currently used in the food, detergent and waste…
Updated 14th Jul 2005

As a Fellow, el-Nashar received up to £40,000, consisting "...of a £15,000 research grant and a £15,000 commercial support grant, plus an optional £10,000 interest free loan from HSBC bank repayable from year two. The funds are managed jointly by the scheme managers and by the Fellow, and are drawn down as agreed milestones are met."

Depending upon how stringent the accounting for the funds were, it's possible that el-Nashar financed the attacks with money from his stipend as a Fellow. Certainly the equivalent of $60-80,000 made things a bit easier for el-Nashar.

Military Releases New Details on Captured Suicide Bomber

An American Forces Press Service release explains how one of three suicide bombers was captured alive yesterday in Baghdad. The terrorists' plan was to attack emergency responders after the initial detonation.

Two bombers with explosives strapped to their bodies approached a coalition forces checkpoint in central Baghdad shortly before 9 a.m., after a car bomb exploded about 200 meters outside the same checkpoint.

Initially, the two suicide bombers were in front of the car that exploded, then they began walking toward the Iraqi police and Iraqi army soldiers who were responding to the car bomb. U.S. military officials said they suspect the two bombers might have been targeting the first responders to the car-bomb attack.

An Iraqi soldier shot one suicide bomber, and, as the bomber fell to the ground, his explosives detonated.

Shrapnel from that explosion wounded the second suicide bomber.

"The (Iraqi) soldiers were about to pick him up and treat him like one of the wounded but then they noticed that he was wearing a suicide vest," said Maj. Alayne Conway, 4th Brigade Combat Team spokesperson.

That bomber was then shot by the (Iraqi police) and put in the back of a nearby pick-up truck until an Iraqi explosive ordnance detonation team could arrive to disarm the vest, rendering the area safe and preventing further casualties.

The wounded suicide bomber is paralyzed and in critical condition. Perhaps Allah will allow him to survive for a few years in his paralytic state in order to contemplate his sins.

This One Almost Gets It

Reading editorials on al-Jazeera's English website is usually an exercise in futility; the minds at work are neither intelligent nor original, but thoroughly indoctrinated with al-Jazeera's hatred for the West in general and the United States in particular. The author of Islamic culture: A convenient scapegoat, al-Jazeera's current effort, almost makes the connections that are so painfully blatant to Westerners.

Soumayya Ghannoushi, a prominent apologist for Middle Eastern terrorists and Islamic oppression, gropes painfully toward a realization that should have been obvious to her years ago. Unfortunately for Ghannoushi, her ideology places limits on what her mind can internalize.

Perhaps the one thing al-Qaida militants have proven good at, apart from the shedding of innocent blood, is fanning the flames of hostility to Islam and Muslims. From the darkness of their caves and hiding places, these self-appointed spokesmen for about one and a half billion Muslims worldwide have excelled in stirring latent negative images of Islam within the Western psyche. Through their senseless crimes, Islam, in the minds of most, has become a euphemism for mass slaughter and destruction. Thanks to them, racism, bigotry and Islamophobia could rear its ugly head unashamedly in broad day light.

Correct as far as it goes, with some major omissions: the ululations of joy after 9/11 by huge segments of the Muslim world added nearly as much to this perception as anything that al Qaeda did, and al Qaeda didn't do it all by themselves. Hamas and Hezbollah fuel the perception of the bloodthirsty, amoral, lying, deceitful, baby-killing Arab. But Ghannoushi is, at this point in her essay at least, on the right track. Then Soumayya has a major brainfart:

The terrible irony is that Muslims currently find themselves helplessly trapped between two fundamentalisms, between Bush's hammer and Bin Laden's anvil, hostages to an extreme right wing American administration, aggressively seeking to impose its expansionist and hegemonic will over the region at gunpoint, and to a cluster of violent, wild fringe groups, lacking in political experience or sound religious understanding.

Muslims are not "trapped between two fundamentalisms". Muslims are faced with a decision, whether to continue supporting Islamist terrorism (overtly by sheltering terrorists, or covertly, by justifying their acts) or whether to enter the twenty-first century as civilized persons. That means people like Ghannoushi will have to eschew the Muslim principle of taqqiyeh, or lying in the service of Islam, as she has done here.

Toppling vicious, murdering thugs and seeking their replacement with democratically elected governments is not "expansionist" or "hegemonic". For Ghannoushi to use such words exposes her embarrassing ignorance of US history. For good or ill, the United States has always rejected Empire. There is as yet no imposed Pax Americana. But perhaps there should be.

Brave Jihadi Babyhunters Strike Again

From the Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide car bomb exploded next to U.S. troops handing out candy and toys, killing 18 children and teenagers Wednesday. Parents heard the shattering explosion and raced out to the discover the worst — children's mangled, bloodied bodies strewn on the street.

Up to 27 people were killed by the blast in the Shiite Muslim neighborhood, including an American soldier. At least 70 people were injured, a newborn and three U.S. soldiers among them.

Children's slippers lay piled near the blast crater not far from a crumbled child's bicycle as blood pooled in the street.

Meanwhile, as you can see from the post below about the FBI, brave jihadi detainees are whining about the indignities of their treatment at Gitmo.

This latest attack follows a tradition, long endorsed by brave militant Islamists and firebreathing Muslim clerics, of attacking the softest targets available.

It's Time for the FBI To Shut the Hell Up

This AP story is an indication that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents' allegations of "torture and abuse" at Guantanamo Bay are based on wild exaggerations motivated by interagency rivalry:

WASHINGTON - Interrogators subjected a suspected terrorist to abusive and degrading treatment, forcing him to wear a bra, dance with another man and behave like a dog, military investigators reported Wednesday, saying that justified their call for disciplinary action.

The chief investigator, Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt, described the interrogation techniques used on Mohamed al-Qahtani, a Saudi who was captured in December 2001 along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

It was learned later that he had tried to enter the U.S. in August 2001 but was turned away by an immigration agent at the Orlando, Fla., airport. Mohamed Atta, ringleader of the Sept. 11 hijackers, was in the airport at the same time, officials have said.

Schmidt said that to get him to talk, interrogators told him his mother and sisters were whores, forced him to wear a bra, forced him to wear a thong on his head, told him he was homosexual and said that other prisoners knew it. They also forced him to dance with a male interrogator, Schmidt added, and subjected him to strip searches with no security value, threatened him with dogs, forced him to stand naked in front of women and forced him onto a leash, to act like a dog.

Oh boo-hoo-hoo. This pig-fucking terrorist is being made to feel uncomfortable and insecure. Cry me a river. If The Dread Pundit Bluto were given carte blanche to interrogate this animal his cellmate would be Big Norm here and Mohamed's ass would be liberally anointed with sow's urine.

This is the petty crap the FBI has been trying to spin into a reason to turn all counter-terrorism activity in the western hemisphere over to...the FBI. The FBI has traditionally had the western hemisphere as its bailiwick, dating back to FDR's WWII solution to childish internecine spats between J. Edgar Hoover and "Wild Bill" Donovan, head of the newly formed Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which became the Central Intelligence Agency.

We don't have the luxury anymore to indulge such pettiness. All of the FBI agents who have been spreading rumors and innuendo about Gitmo should be investigated with an eye toward criminal prosecution.

Remember, the FBI allowed the horror of 9/11 to be perpetrated right under their very noses.

Why, We Have No Idea What Got Into Those Boys' Heads

Sir Iqbal Sacranie of the Muslim Council of Britain had this to say about the London bombings:

"It appears our youth have been involved in last week's horrific bombings against innocent people.

"While the police investigation continues we reiterate our absolute commitment and resolve to helping the police bring to justice all involved in this crime of mass murder. Nothing in Islam can ever justify the evil actions of the bombers."

A search of Quranic verses, however, indicates a slightly different tone from Sir Iqbal's

[2.191] And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer than slaughter, and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight with you in it, but if they do fight you, then slay them; such is the recompense of the unbelievers.
[4.101] And when you journey in the earth, there is no blame on you if you shorten the prayer, if you fear that those who disbelieve will cause you distress, surely the unbelievers are your open enemy.
[9.123] O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness; and know that Allah is with those who guard (against evil).

Earlier this year, the Muslim council of Britain refused to participate in commemorations of the Jewish Holocaust during WWII. At that time, Sir Iqbal had this to say:

Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, has written to Charles Clarke, the home secretary, saying the body will not attend the event unless it includes the “holocaust” of the Palestinian intifada.

I think our British cousins should keep Sir Iqbal and the other weasels at the MCB under scrutiny.

Brits Blast Into Suspect House in Leeds

Working on information developed by surveillance cameras and personal effects of men believed involved in the London terror attacks, British authorities have raided a house in Leeds, using explosives to get inside. From the Associated Press:

LEEDS, England - The bomber responsible for last week's explosion on a London double-decker bus was believed to be among the 13 people killed on board, a discovery that led to raids Tuesday in Leeds, a northern city with a strong Muslim community, news reports said.

In a key development in the investigation into the terror attacks that killed at least 52 people, British soldiers blasted their way into a modest Leeds row house to search for explosives and computers. Streets were cordoned off and about 500 people were evacuated. Hours earlier, police searched five residences elsewhere in the city.

Sky News reported that in addition to the bomber on the bus, attackers carried explosives onto three subway trains, and that all four were killed. Police declined to comment on the report and have said in the past there was no evidence of suicide bombings.

Radio reports indicated that the Brits were in contact with a Leeds imam who was cooperating with them and giving information.

Though the terrorists who carried out the attacks are now thought to have died, arrests of conspirators may be imminent. Pity the Brits no longer have the death penalty.

Unofficial Intelligence Bulletin: "Al Qaeda Nukes Already in US"

According to World Net Daily, Joseph Farah, publisher of the G2 Bulletin, is reporting that al Qaeda has already smuggled at least 40 nuclear devices into the United States via Mexico:

WASHINGTON – As London recovers from the latest deadly al-Qaida attack that killed at least 50, top U.S. government officials are contemplating what they consider to be an inevitable and much bigger assault on America – one likely to kill millions, destroy the economy and fundamentally alter the course of history, reports Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

According to captured al-Qaida leaders and documents, the plan is called the "American Hiroshima" and involves the multiple detonation of nuclear weapons already smuggled into the U.S. over the Mexican border with the help of the MS-13 street gang and other organized crime groups.

Via The Jawa Report.

Hard Choices Ahead For Muslims and the West

The Jawa Report posts today about numerous incidents of anti-Muslim backlash in Great Britain and New Zealand. Here's the spot where most commentators feel compelled to offer a de rigeur blanket condemnation of such "senseless, racist" acts. But the situation in the world today has become too complex for simple knee-jerk reactions.

For centuries, a murderous cult known as the Thuggee terrorized India:

The English word thug, meaning a violent criminal, comes from the Hindi word thag (and originally from the Sanskrit word sthaga), meaning a thief or villain.

The original Thugs were bands of roving criminals in India who strangled and robbed travellers. Originally these gangs committed murder following precise religious rites to honour Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction.

The Thugs included both Hindu and Muslim members and justified their murders through religious doctrine. The cautionary note for modern Islam is contained in the following passage (emphasis added):

Although Thugs never attacked English travellers the British government of India decided to eliminate them, and over 3000 Thugs were captured by William Sleeman during the 1830s. 483 Thugs gave evidence against the rest, 412 were hanged and the rest imprisoned or rehabilitated.

Sleeman is still commemorated in the name of the Indian village of Sleemanabad (where it is said that his picture still hangs in the police station).

The Indian population had suffered greatly from Thug activities and supported the British action against the cult, although one modern writer has described it as a witch-hunt.

The Thug cult was extinct by 1890, but the concept of 'criminal tribes' and 'criminal castes' is still in use in India.

Too many modern-day Muslims do not support efforts to destroy al Qaeda and its allies. Too many modern-day Muslims refuse to cooperate with authorities and turn in terrorists and those who applaud and advocate terrorism. The normal Muslim reaction is to ban such people from a particular mosque when their rhetoric becomes too radical. Muslim communities in the Western world need to internalize a new message: pro forma condemnations of terrorist acts perpetrated by Muslims are not enough. Muslims must do more to combat radical Islamism or face increasingly frequent questions about their loyalty. Muslims must actively and voluntarily share information about such people with counter-terrorist investigators.

The British exterminated the cult of Kali even though no Britons were among the victims. Now it appears that the jihadi madmen and their simpleminded followers have spilled innocent British blood. A few more such acts may be all it takes to have Muslims branded as the modern day Thuggee. The window of opportunity for Muslims living in the West to cooperate fully is slowly closing. Non-Muslim Westerners may be pushed into deciding that Islam is a danger to their societies.

3 Arrested at Heathrow: No Link to Bombings Yet

From Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - British police arrested three terrorist suspects on Sunday at Heathrow airport but said they had no reason so far to link them to last week's suspected al Qaeda bombings in London.

"Three people have been arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act at Heathrow airport," Scotland Yard Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick told a news conference.

The investigation should have no lack of suspects as the UK is rife with loud-mouthed Islamist militants, including Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammed, leader of the outlawed group al Mujahiroun, which has been linked to al Qaeda. In January the Sheikh threatened Great Britain with suicide bombers.

Thousands Evacuated in Birmingham, UK

From Reuters:

LONDON (Reuters) - Police said on Saturday they were evacuating thousands of people from the centre of Birmingham after receiving a threat warning.

"West Midlands police...are now closing down the Broad Street entertainment zone and asking people to leave Birmingham town centre and go home," said a police spokesman in the country's second biggest city.

"Our inquiries are ongoing. We're not going into the nature of the threat."

Update: The Guardian notes that Birmingham was the site of "one of the worst Irish Republican Army bombings of the 1970s." Yeah, right, it's the IRA.

Update II: From Sky News:

Bomb squad officers have reportedly carried out a series of controlled explosions in the Broad Street entertainment district.


West Midlands Police said no vehicles are being allowed past the inner ring road.

Around 200 bars, restaurants and clubs are being emptied and searched

A spokeswoman said: "West Midlands Police are issuing a public warning to people after they received intelligence to suggest a threat to the city centre.

No word yet on whether or not the controlled explosions triggered any sympathetic blasts.

Update II (7-10): Latest reports are describing one controlled detonation of a suspicious device that was not an explosive.

Dog Bites Man; Daily Kos Does Something Right

Yesterday, kos of Daily Kos banned his conspiracy nuts en masse. The type is tiresomely familiar to most of us; now they're peddling insanity about the London bombings being a Bush/Blair plot. Kos finally decided enough was enough and banned them, even announcing that he was conducting a "purge":

I made a mass banning of people perpetuating a series of bizarre, off-the-wall, unsupported and frankly embarrassing conspiracy theories.

I have a high tolerance level for material I deem appropriate for this site, but one thing I REFUSE to allow is bullshit conspiracy theories. You know the ones -- Bush and Blair conspired to bomb London in order to take the heat off their respective political problems. I can't imagine what fucking world these people live in, but it sure ain't the Reality Based Community.

So I banned these people, and those that have been recommending diaries like it. And I will continue to do so until the purge is complete, and make no mistake -- this is a purge.

I'm tempted to make some snarky comment, but the fact is, kos has acted responsibly in this instance and it would behoove bloggers on the right to follow his example.

Unfortunately, some of the comments made to kos' announcement show that he has a tough row to hoe here. Conspiracy theory is pretty much mainstream thought to Democrats struggling to deal with their electoral setbacks in 2000 and 2004. Too many on the Left can't come to terms with political rejection and put the blame on electronic voting machine conspiracies and other wild claims. All the more proof that Bush-hating is an irrational activity.

Via Michelle Malkin.

Sheik Threatened Brits

The Muslim Council of Britain website provides a link to a story from early this year, which includes this passage:

London, England, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Muslims living in Britain are facing two choices; either to migrate or to join the jihad, a key Islamic figure has said.

Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammed, leader of the now officially disbanded Islamic militant group Al Muhajiroun told United Press International Saturday that as the covenant of security under which Muslims previously lived in Britain has been broken, Muslims must now consider themselves at war.

"And I declare we should ourselves join the global Islamic camp against the global crusade camp," he said.

What violated the covenant, according to Sheikh Omar, was the anti-terrorist legislation introduced in the United Kingdom after the 9/11 attacks. If the British government would review these policies and release those detained without trial in Belmarsh prison and elsewhere, Muslims could live at peace in Britain. Otherwise, they must prepare themselves to fight.

"The response from the Muslims will be horrendous if the British government continues in the way it treats Muslims," he said, adding that suicide bombings were a possibility.

Sheikh Muhammed's Muhajiroun group has been linked to al Qaeda.

Here's a statement from the Muslim Council of Britain

Deepest sympathy is expressed at the death and suffering which the series of co-ordinated attacks in London has caused to the families and loved ones who have been the victims of this terrible atrocity.

This criminal attack is condemned in the strongest possible terms. No good purpose can be achieved by such an indiscriminate and cruel use of terror.

The scriptures and the traditions of both the Muslim and Christian communities repudiate the use of such violence. Religious precepts cannot be used to justify such crimes, which are completely contrary to our teaching and practice.

We continue to resist all attempts to associate our communities with the hateful acts of any minority who claim falsely to represent us. In the present uncertainties, we look to all community leaders to give an example of wisdom, tolerance and compassion.

The events of recent years have challenged Muslims and Christians to work together in order to acknowledge our differences, to affirm our common humanity, and to seek ways to share life together. Much has already been achieved, and nothing must undermine the progress that we have made. These attacks strengthen our determination to live together in peace, and to grow together in mutual understanding.

This crime must inspire us to work unceasingly together in pursuit of peace, justice and respect for difference.

The Muslim Council of Britain spends a great deal of time and energy complaining about British actions in the War on Terror. It would behoove them to spend less time protesting anti-terrorist security measures, and more time ferreting out the snakes in their midst.

Terror Attacks in London

From MSNBC

LONDON - At least 33 people were killed when three explosions ripped through London subway trains Thursday and an undetermined number were killed in a fourth explosion on a bus, officials said in what Prime Minister Tony Blair described as a "barbaric" terrorist attack.

How will the Brits react? Will they fight like Americans or cower like Spaniards? History says they will fight, but the rise of Socialism in Europe in recent times has introduced an insidious new variable in the form of a traitorous fifth column.

US officials have raised the terror alert level to orange for mass transit systems, but anyone who has traveled recently by bus or train knows that security for these forms of transportation is minimal at best. There is simply nothing to prevent a terrorist from boarding an Amtrak train in, say, Syracuse, New York and arriving a few hours later in Grand Central Station - never having been searched.

5 Possible American Traitors Captured in Iraq

Rusty Shackelford at The Jawa Report has the details. If the allegations are true, these cases involve actual treason against the United States.

WaPo Uses Anonymous Sources to Bash Anonymous Bloggers

I just love a good bit of irony. Today the Washington Post takes on anonymous bloggers ("Bluto" is not my real name, but the photo at right is moi), and uses an anonymous source to do it [emphasis added]:

"We are equal opportunity bashers here," the Not Larry Sabato blogger said in a phone interview. The group, he added, is made up of two Democrats and two Republicans from across the state. "There's no question it's completely thumbing our nose at the establishment. You can imagine how much fun it is when [state delegates] have a closed meeting . . . and all of a sudden, the secret meeting . . . is now out on the Internet."

"We don't have the same standards as [the mainstream media]," he said. "If someone makes a defamatory statement, that has nothing to do with us. We are not responsible for what other people are saying on our blog. It's kind of like a hotel pool. There's no lifeguard. You are responsible for yourself."

This is just too convenient. Could it be a Jason Blair moment? Writer David Cho offers no explanation for how he confirmed that he was, indeed, actually speaking to one of the bloggers. Fake but accurate?

The Dread Pundit Bluto has been an anonymous blog from the beginning. I toyed with the idea of using my real name, but the fact that I have a family and a listing in the phone book argued against it. Not because I wanted to post unconfirmed rumors and innuendo as fact, but because I didn't want my family harassed by nuts, or worse.

In March, over a month before Newsweek published, I posted about 357Hosting, the host of choice for terrorists and their sympathizers. Immediately, I saw a large number of IPs that tracked back to Middle Eastern and Dutch users. You're only paranoid until someone firebombs your house.

Via The Jawa Report.

They Say It Rolls Downhill...

...but lately, I don't think these folks have been getting enough fiber in their diets. [Click on the image for a larger view]

Thanks to reader Sig94.

Germans Bulldoze Crosses Commemorating Communist Victims

The Germans have just bulldozed a thousand crosses placed at Berlin's famous Checkpoint Charlie in memory of people killed attempting to escape to freedom in the West. From David's Medienkritik:

As Americans set off fireworks to celebrate independence and freedom tonight, a different scene will play out half-way around the world in Berlin. There, at the site of Checkpoint Charlie, where Americans stood guard for so many decades and confronted Communist tyranny, workers with heavy equipment and machinery will descend to tear down over 1,000 crosses, each individually dedicated to those murdered attempting to escape Communist dictatorship for freedom.

An update at Medienkritik says that the demolition, which was scheduled for 4:01 am to avoid publicity, has been completed, despite the presence of former victims of Communist oppression who had chained themselves to the crosses. The memorial site was not an historic site, but was owned by a German bank. Perhaps an instructional video of the incident can be made to educate a certain five US Supreme Court justices about the proper use of Eminent Domain.

Via The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler.

Poor Little Rich and Famous Girl

Last week I watched a child actress being interviewed on a network morning show to promote a new movie. Something was creeping me out, but I couldn't put my finger on it. The little girl was precociously witty and laughed freely.

It occurred to me that this child was trying on masks. Precocious as she was, she still hadn't attained that level of smooth artificiality that is a hallmark of the Hollywood celebrity. This pre-teen was perfecting a public image, and once I realized this, the interview took on an air of the grotesque.

Now, there are literally millions of children in America who are as cute and talented as the little girl who was being interviewed. And a large percentage of these cute and talented children certainly have the desire to be movie stars. The little girl being interviewed must have a little something extra (outside of the conveniently lenient child labor laws in California) going for her. She does. Her parents. She is a goldmine for them. Of course they will tell you that the money she makes doing movies is used for her benefit. That may be true, but the vast majority of children's parents earn the money for their kids' benefit. Those parents put money away for college. Those parents use money they have earned to pay for food and clothing. Those parents don't make salaries as "managers" for their own children. And they don't force their kids into becoming grotesque little Hollywood-phony miniature adults.

If you disagree, try to name an orphan who became a child star.

Independence Day

No posting today, celebrating the Fourth with family and friends.

"Doonesbury" Vs. The Blog

Doonesbury creator G. B. Trudeau uses his comic strip today to attack bloggers. Ho-hum. I suppose I could scan his strip and post it here and get all outraged and everything. I could point out that Trudeau's tirade is a plea to invest all political speech in the hands of corporate interests, or that his "argument" could be used to shut down the Public Broadcasting System, or that similar stereotyping tactics were used to denigrate African Americans for decades and perpetuate institutionalized discrimination. But, the truth is, Trudeau was actually trolling for blog links, and, after all, political cartooning is just so...je ne sais quoi...nineteenth century.

How Live 8 Could Be More Successful: a Modest Proposal

From Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - A galaxy of rock stars staged the world's biggest live concert on Saturday to pressure rich nations into doing more for the poor.

People power rose up across four continents as Irish rocker Bob Geldof urged music fans at Live 8 gigs around the globe to cry "No more excuses" to the G8 leaders of the world's leading industrialized nations.

"Mahatma Gandhi freed a continent, Martin Luther King freed a people, Nelson Mandela freed a country. It does work. They will listen," Geldof said.

One can just smell the sincere fervor and true concern for the welfare of unfortunates oozing from the pores of each and every Live 8 celebrity participant. It metaphorically wafts from the page of each Live 8 news release like the earthy aroma of a blossoming beer fart.

Earlier this week, Live 8 organizers bemoaned what they perceived as the pitiful level of giving from the US government in the form of foreign aid.

But influencing the actions of national governments is a long and grueling process. I just know that Geldof and the other celebrities are completely and selflessly dedicated to their cause, and therefore, I'm offering them an alternative plan of action to get the massive amounts of aid needed to Live 8's intended beneficiaries as expeditiously as possible.

Here's what they need to do.

First, forget the whole concert idea. The logistics are tremendously expensive and simply deduct that much cash from the amount available to feed the unfortunates. As an example, several thousand dollars can be saved in bottled water for Bono's entourage. Multiply this type of savings by the number of celebs kindly donating their time with no thought whatsoever of the free publicity involved and Live 8 can amass a huge savings, all to be sent to Africa. Also, no rental and cleanup costs for the concert venues, no money paid out for concert security or First Class air fares and charter flights for organizers and performers. With the number of -oh-so-concerned celebrities involved in Live 8 I figure a minimum savings of $25 million. That's a lot of Care packages, amigo.

Second, the coup de grace as it were, instead of being asked to give up their valuable time flying a luxury junket to some God-forsaken concert venue, each celebrity will donate the amount of $10 million for the privilege of having his or her name engraved on a tasteful commemorative plate. The plates can then be sold to the "little people" for 10 or 15 bucks a pop, generating even more income for the downtrodden.

$10 million is little more than pocket change for stars like Geldof and Bono. Multiply it by about 100 beautiful people and we've got $1 billion for the poor! And there's no reason Geldof couldn't approach his glitterati buddies every year! Or even semi-annually!

No Apology From Brian Williams

The NBC Nightly News passed tonight without an apology from anchor Brian Williams, who last night likened America's Founding Fathers to Iranian Islamist revolutionaries and opined that they "...might have been considered terrorists by the British Crown." Williams is obviously hoping that the controversy dies away over the weekend.

Of course, it just may be that Williams is so deeply biased that he doesn't really see anything wrong with his grotesque and inappropriate analogy. Here are a few earlier quotes attributed to Williams, quotes that would seem to indicate that the NBC anchor is solidly on the lefthand side of the aisle:

“It’s red meat for conservatives, the positions rather strident tonight: anti-gay, pro-Jesus, and anti-abortion and no gray matter in between,”

“I’ve also said that if Americans were paying Presidents by the thought, we’re getting a bargain in this guy [Clinton] because, my God, he’s just always moving, his brain’s moving, he hardly sleeps."

“President Bush makes a major announcement. Tonight, why the U.S. is deliberately going back on its word in front of the rest of the world.”

These quotes are just a sample of Williams political thought patterns, from the media research organization Media Reality Check.

Three Held in Holloway Disappearance Charged With Murder

According to a report from the Associated Press the three young men arrested in Natalee Holloway's disappearance, Joran Van Der Sloot, Deepak Kalpoe, and his brother Satish, were charged with murder at some unspecified time since their arrests.

ORANJESTAD, Aruba - Three young men detained in the disappearance of an Alabama teenager have been charged with murder since their arrest more than three weeks ago, Aruba's chief prosecutor told The Associated Press on Friday.

The charges were not announced at the time to protect the family of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway, said Attorney General Karin Janssen.

"The three have been charged with the murder of Natalee Holloway from the beginning" of their arrest 10 days after the young woman went missing May 30, she said.

Aruban officials have repeatedly denied that they have evidence that the Alabama teen is dead. It's unclear from this report whether new evidence has surfaced to justify murder charges.

Sandra Day O'Connor to Retire

Surprise, surprise. With everyone speculating on the retirement of the ailing Rehnquist, Sandra Day O'Connor has just announced her imminent retirement from the Supreme Court. From the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON - Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court and a key swing vote on issues such as abortion and the death penalty, said Friday she is retiring.

O'Connor, 75, said she expects to leave before the start of the court's next term in October, or whenever the Senate confirms her successor. There was no immediate word from the White House on who might be nominated to replace O'Connor.

Who wants to bet that any nominee to the right of Che Guevarra will trigger a filibuster due to "extraordinary circumstances" from the so-called "loyal opposition"?

Via The Jawa Report.